The New Brexit Binary Of The Two Major Political Parties In Northern Ireland

The 2016 Brexit referendum embarked on a long and tortuous withdrawal road for the UK from the European Union.The negotiation process lasted for three years in which the Irish border had been a central issue.The intractability of the Irish border issue is related to the sensitive and complex history between the two main communities-Protestant unionists and Catholic nationalists,in Northern Ireland.The aim of this thesis is to examine the interaction between Northern Irish largest unionist party,the Democratic Unionist Party,and the largest nationalist party,Sinn Fein before Brexit,during the Brexit negotiations and in post-Brexit era,to explore the impact of Brexit on Northern Irish party politics,the Northern Ireland peace process,and the prospects for Irish unification.This thesis also explores the relationship between this political rivalry and the dilemmas in the Backstop plan and the Internal Market Bill.This thesis found that the new binary between the two major parties in Northern Ireland,Democratic Unionist Party（DUP）and Sinn Fein,was triggered by Brexit and intensified in the post-Brexit era by the difficulty of the subsequent implementation of the Northern Ireland Protocol.By applying the constructivist theory of identity,this thesis argues that the new partisan binary in Northern Ireland remains essentially a continuation of the identity politics between Protestant unionists and Catholic nationalists to a large extent,but also exhibits some new features due to the complexity of the European question.This thesis also proposes that the constitutional status of Northern Ireland will be influenced by development in party politics within Northern Ireland,bringing the Northern Ireland peace process arrangements and the issue of Irish unity back onto the British and Irish political agenda.